TOKYO, Dec 21 Kyodo single outed...

TOKYO, Dec 21 Kyodo

single outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

CONTINUITY AND STRAIN IN southern KOREA (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

The election of Mr Roh Moo Hyun as toward the south Korea's next president promises continuity in Seoul His victory is a triumph for departing President Kim Dae JungMr Roh's surety to continue Mr. Kim's ''sunshine policy'' of engagement with North Korea must be gratifying.

Unfortunately, continuity also threatens to increase strains between Seoul and Washington, which is taking a harder line against the North. A rift will have repercussions for regional security and stability. The ne for coordination of policy between Seoul Washington and Tokyo has at no time been more urgent...

The focus forward North-South relations meant that Seoul's relations with Washington were also an issue. While affirming his commitment to the alliance, Mr Roh promised to establish a more ''equal'' relationship with the United States...

After winning, Mr Roh made the ritual pledges...to guide on behalf of all toward the south Koreans. Advisers said that he will reassure U President George W Bush that he is a robust supporter of the alliance and that calls for a more equal relationship will not jeopardize the bilateral relationship.

While Mr Roh has said that he is not anti-American, he has accused previous southerly Korean presidents of groveling before the U Unlike his predecessors, he has neither visited the U nor speaks English. While political reality may push him closer to the center and temper some of his views, his skepticism about U policy is plain. Many other toward the south Koreans see the U.S. military air in their country -- 37000 crowds -- as an obstacle to Korean unification, a view that Pyongyang would like to encourage. The lock opener question for U.S.-South Korea relations is whether Mr Roh will play that populist card.

The pursuit of engagement at all costlinesss will put South Korea at singles with the U.S. -- and Japan. At the Security Consultative Committee meeting that was held earlier this week, Japan and the U agreed to take a hard line against the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and missile proliferation, and called onward Pyongyang to release the families of the five abductees who are in Japan. Tokyo's insistence that those families be reunited before normalization talks can proce moves counter to Mr. Roh's call for dialogue at each opportunity. Here, too, there is touch that Mr. Roh -- drawing forward South Korean anger at Japan -- could blame Tokyo for intransigence rather than Pyongyang.

...As Mr Kim (Dae Jung) learned, that can be dangerous. His promises to ''clean up'' politics came back to haunt him as scandals repeatedly surfaced during his space of time in office and stripped him of his authority and a great deal of of the credit he deserv It is a chiding Mr. Roh needs to absorb. Unfortunately, North Korea's behavior and the survey of another South Korean economic downturn mean that he has little time to study

(Dec 21)

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group